Rea paces Q1 at Phillip Island

Jonathan Rea went quickest in the first qualifying session at Phillip Island ahead of the World Superbike season-opening race in Australia.

Honda rider Rea timed his run to perfection, posting the fastest time with just over three minutes of the run-out remaining.

The Ulsterman clocked 1min 31.959secs to top the timesheets after Carlos Checa had paced the previous practice session.

“Going fastest was a pleasant surprise and also kind of our plan," Rea said. "We went out and got on a decent pace right away, sort of 1:32 lap times, but with old tyres. Then we developed a problem with the bike and we lost a bit of time during the session.

"When we did go out again I went out with what I think the race tyre is going to be fitted to the rear, but it did not have the pace of the tyre I used at the end. I did about ten laps on that tyre, all very consistent but it was not going to be the fastest lap of the day.

"I came in to the pits near the end and got a new tyre then went out and we got a bit of a feel-good factor; just to see that we were not that far away from the pace really.”

Checa had again led for much of the way but his progress was halted by a tumble with 20 minutes remaining.

Ahead of Checa were fellow Ducati riders Jakub Smrz and Davide Giugliano with Max Biaggi rounding off the top five.

There was a scare for Eugene Laverty, who is recovering from a fractured hand but suffered an early fall. He was taken to the medical centre but initial reports suggest he will be fit to race on Saturday.

Leon Haslam, who skipped the opening session, made it out onto the track and completed three laps as he continues to gear up for qualifying on Friday.